Weston Select Board Votes to Seek Court Relief for 2021 Town Election

WESTON — February 9, 2021 — Weston Select Board moves to court to salvage its spring 2021 election amid pandemic restrictions. The board voted unanimously Tuesday to seek a court order allowing it to eliminate or modify the traditional caucus requirement, reduce nomination-paper signatures from 50 to 10, and authorize early voting by mail — relief the town also pursued last year when it moved its annual town meeting to September. Town Counsel Lauren Goldberg told the board that a governor's bill was too slow given the legislature's unsettled new session, estimating legislation would take at least seven weeks, while a court filing could come as soon as Friday or Monday and yield a hearing within days. The board is tentatively targeting a March 8 election and March 15 town meeting but left both dates flexible pending the court ruling. In other business, the board unanimously approved a revised commercial dog-walking regulation effective before the February 28 permit deadline, a payment-in-lieu-of-taxes renewal with Weston Community Housing Inc. covering fiscal years 2021 through 2025 with an annual credit of roughly $6,000 for sidewalk repair work, and authorized the Collins Center to perform a land use operations study using the board's consulting account.